Palm Sunday: A donkey’s diary

Susan Haynes | Matthew 21:1-17 | Matthew 26:36-45 

The disciples... brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘“My house will be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it “a den of robbers.”’

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled... He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’

Susan tells the story of Palm Sunday and some of the events that followed from a rather unusual source. The content is based on "An Easter Donkey's Diary" written by Tony Bower of York Schools and Youth Trust.

The readings are given by Alison Cooper, John Lanchbury and Michael Dewsbury.

An edited video recording of the Sunday service can be viewed on YouTube.